Recently, three minor boys have been arrested for allegedly raping a six-year-old girl in Delhi’s Bhajanpura area, and alongside this horrific news, another case erupted where a 17-year-old relative sexually assaulted and murdered a seven-year-old girl and later threw her into a canal, leading to her death. When one delves into it, we see that both of these incidents are not isolated. They are forcing India to deeply confront its unsettling reality. It is a disturbing reminder of a growing pattern of children committing sexual offences against other children.
Usually, the Indian public comes out to offer rightful justice for the survivors; in such cases, we usually find an uncomfortable silence. The silence is around how these minors, who became perpetrators of sexual violence, will be treated in the eyes of the law. Well, there is no clear answer, and if there is, it requires a balanced form of justice, accountability and prevention.
The underdiscussed but growing crisis
The data suggests that with each passing day, minors are becoming offenders of sexual violence. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a significant number of sexual assault cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act are embroiled with juvenile offenders. In many cases, these perpetrators are known to the victim, sometimes as relatives, neighbours or acquaintances. Imagine someone whom you know, and they do a heinous act like this, challenging the concept of “stranger danger” in this narrative.
The Bhajanpura and Barwani cases reinforce this grim truth. When sexual violence comes from within family circles, it complicates the already complicated legal process and the social understanding of the crime.
The Bhajanpura and Barwani cases reinforce this grim truth. When sexual violence comes from within family circles, it complicates the already complicated legal process and the social understanding of the crime. Our society is already grappling with this duality: that minors are legally children, and how can children commit acts of violence?
Where does India stand in the legal framework
In India, juvenile crimes are addressed by the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. The law differentiates between offences and puts them into three categories: petty, serious, and heinous. Sexual assault and rape fall under the heinous offence category. This category includes crime punishable with seven years or more of imprisonment.
Under the JJ Act 2015, minors aged between 16 and 18 accused of heinous crimes can be tried as adults after a firsthand assessment by the JJ Board. The work of this board is to evaluate the mental and physical capacity of the minor, who has committed the said crime. Along with this, they also understand the consequences and circumstances surrounding the offence. Alongside, the POCSO Act takes care of sexual offences against children, mainly focusing on survivor protection and stringent punishment for offenders. To our surprise, the POCSO Act does not adequately address when the accused is also a minor.
This legal overlap creates procedural delays and ethical dilemmas. So, the question arises, can the justice system prioritise punishment when dealing with juvenile sexual offenders?
The punishment vs rehabilitation debate
After reading the above, one might wonder if one should try juvenile offenders as adults (particularly in such brutal crimes), but criminal research and child psychology have a different perspective. The research says a child’s cognitive development is incomplete, and they are unable to control impulses, assess risks, and understand long-term consequences.
Treating minors purely as adult criminals risks overlooking underlying factors such as exposure to violence, lack of sex education, toxic gender conditioning, and socio-economic vulnerabilities. Rehabilitation programmes, counselling, and behavioural interventions can play a crucial role in preventing repeat offences. Treating minors as adults displays overlooking certain factors such as exposure to violence, lack of sex education, toxic gender conditioning and socio-economic vulnerabilities. To prevent such offences, counselling and behavioural interventions can play a crucial role at both home and schools.
But yes, survivor justice cannot be compromised. Survivors of child abuse require legal closure, psychological support, and recognition of the harm inflicted upon them. The legal system should strive for a difficult but balanced form of justice. This will ensure accountability while recognising the possibility of reform in juvenile offenders.
The need for social conditioning
There should be an open legal conversation around juvenile sexual offences, and it should not be limited to courtrooms and news channels. There should be an examination of children’s attitudes towards gender, power and consent. Many times, while examining the cases, it is found out that juvenile offenders grow up in places where consent is absent, misogyny is normalised, and violence is a tool to assert masculinity. Also, the easy access to content on social media about sexual education plays a great deal with young minds and their understanding of a female body. To address this, we require interventions through schools, families and communities. Sometimes, it seems everybody is against rape, but imparting sex education brings shame in Indian households.
Indian households are reluctant towards implementing sex education, and this remains as one of the most critical gaps in preventing sexual offences. Teenagers rely on misinformation from peers, pornography, and social media to understand intimacy and relationships.
Indian households are reluctant towards implementing sex education, and this remains as one of the most critical gaps in preventing sexual offences. Teenagers rely on misinformation from peers, pornography, and social media to understand intimacy and relationships. Comprehensive sex education is not only about explaining to kids about sexual intercourse, the formation of the foetus to baby, and the shedding of the uterus lining to sanitary napkins (which we all learnt in 8th and 10th), it’s also about understanding consent, emotional literacy, and respect for boundaries (which was absent from our biology lessons).
In the absence of such conversations, children are left alone to navigate complex biological and emotional changes they feel inside their bodies, and sometimes it results in harmful criminal behaviour, which no one was expecting from a boy who is a scholar in mathematics.
Another neglected aspect of legal conversations is the need for structured psychological rehabilitation for juvenile offenders. Many children who commit sexual offences may themselves have histories of abuse, neglect, or exposure to violence. Another major factor neglected when dealing with the psychological conditioning of juvenile offenders is understanding the psyche of the child. The Indian legal system should have therapeutic intervention, focusing on behavioural correction and trauma resolution. This can reduce recidivism rates. We know that the juvenile justice system lacks adequate mental health professionals and counsellors. [Watch the 2025 Adolescence to understand the need for a good mental health practitioner.]
Survivor justice is non-negotiable
Discussions around the juvenile offenders are necessary, but they must never overshadow survivors’ rights. When a young kid goes through such a trauma, they face lifelong psychological issues, social stigma is attached to it, and the legal process re-traumatises them during the trial period. Thus, there is a need for fast-track courts, survivor-sensitive investigation procedures, and access to counselling is also very crucial. Here, the family can play the most important role in supporting the survivor, rather than silencing them due to social stigma.
The Barwani case, where the accused was a relative, highlights another uncomfortable reality—sexual violence often occurs within domestic or familial spaces. Parental supervision, open communication, and early gender sensitisation play crucial roles in prevention. The Barwani Case, where the accused was a relative, reflects another uncomfortable reality and makes one question the whole stranger danger narrative.
Many parents avoid discussing consent and body safety with their children. There can be many reasons, such as discomfort and cultural taboos. However, reports suggest that children who are educated at home about body safety and sex education are better equipped at understanding that they are being abused, and they move to report the same as well. Outside the home, school-based workshops, local child protection committees, and community based programmes, can create a protective environment for children in their surroundings.
The cases of Bhajanpura and Barwani are tragic reminders of how child protection cannot be viewed through the simplistic binaries of victim and offender. When a minor commits an offence, society should confront its failures. Failures at education, parenting, gender socialisation, and mental health. Of course, legal frameworks should evolve, and we need to address such complexities. The goal should not be punishment but transformation. In the end, we need to ensure that one child’s violence should not create lifelong harm for multiple lives.
